Ham Throws Out Family Cat

BEEDEVILLE, Md. — Morse, the family cat at the Muester household, is now fending for himself outdoors.

The cat was given its name after Samuel Morse, the inventor of Morse code, an antique mode of communication sometimes used by amateur “ham” radio operators.

“Morse [the cat] has been fascinated with my radio gear since he was a kitten. He would lay on my lap and sometimes his tail would hit the Morse code key. I thought it was pretty funny at the time,” said Ernest Muester, a ham radio operator since the 1990s. “That’s why I call him Morse!”

A recent event changed his attitude about the cat, though.

“I was in the shack Sunday night getting ready for the Wire Twister Net on 7.227 MHz, but headed into the kitchen to fix a sandwich. Morse stayed in the shack,” said Muester. “I got distracted by my wife talking about a dancing show on the television, so I didn’t get back to the shack until probably 15 minutes later.”

When he walked into the shack, he saw Morse [the cat] napping on his straight key.

“I immediately knew what was going on and I might have screamed a little,” said Muester. He still has trouble talking about the incident.

“I dropped my sandwich and frantically ran to the desk, knowing that I had left the radio on the frequency for the net which had started 15 minutes earlier. That damn cat had been
sending a carrier over the net the entire time!”

Morse [the cat] is no longer living a cat’s dream of food always at the ready and winter naps next to warm vacuum tubes. “I picked him up right then and there and put him in the backyard. For good!”

His family isn’t happy. “My dad’s a jerk,” said Muester’s 10-year-old son.

Muester, still feeling the embarrassment of the moment, says he does not yet have the courage to check in to the net again.